Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Ok, so I just have to talk Glee for a moment. It was back with a new episode last night and I thought it was a great one. I especially loved the music, so many great songs... but Finn's rendition of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun blew me away! OMGosh, I couldn't believe how amazing it was and I will totally be downloading it onto my ipod today! :)

Moving on to my card, this one was totally just for fun and wanting to play around with a bit of altering. That and I also wanted to play along in the Monday Fun Day challenge to use three of something on a card. I've had this idea for a while to create a cocoa sipping Anya using Cafe Ian's mug holding arm. And since this was going to be a Christmas card I thought it would be cute to put her in some fun Christmas pjs so I pulled out Dress Me Anya's body and pajamas. Then to finish her off I grabbed Travel Anya for her great head of hair. Doesn't she look like she's just woken up and is ready to settle in for a Christmas morning full of opening presents and snuggling with Ian? :)And as for the challenge, my original plan was to use three pattern papers but then I went and paper pieced her pajamas which got me up to four. So when I added the holly leaves I made sure that there were three on there... but technically I also used three TGF stamps to create this Anya, LOL!

Alrighty, I've got a day off and I'm hoping to get a video or two done so we'll see how that goes.TTYL!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

With all of the new stamps being released it can be easy to neglect old favorites, so we are doing a bit of a throwback post over on the ATS blog today. Each of the DT have chosen a winter/Christmas stamp from a past year's release to feature once again. For my card I chose my sweet little Winter Darby and her pal, Pudge who were first released last November. This time I did a tiny bit of altering to Pudge by adding a letter for him to deliver to his friend because I was inspired by the postcard looking paper scrap that I pulled for the card. Yep, this is more scraps from the scrap bag and I even made my own Christmas yo-yo for an embellishment... I feel so crafty! This card was a lot of fun to make. Seriously who doesn't love visiting with old friends... whether they be rubber or real. :)

Monday, November 28, 2011

Ah, Monday... here you are again.Hey guys, so are you ready to get back into the swing of another week? I'm feeling pretty upbeat and positive for a Monday morning and I hope that means good things for the rest of the week. Remember that MIA paper pad that I was searching high and low for? Well after giving up hope yesterday, I found it in the backseat of the car of all places! Sheesh! At least now I can stop obsessing about it, LOL! ;)

I made my card for today using one of the Kraftin' Kimmie angels that I had colored up from a previous "white" video that I did, which can be found here or on Color Me Copic. Because white has a tendency to reflect whatever color surrounds it, I used very light pinks to color Aurelia knowing that I would be pairing her up with this pink snowflake paper from October Afternoon. Talk about a very girly looking Christmas card, but instead of fighting it I ran with the look. Throw on some glittery cardstock, sparkly twine and a pretty handmade stick pin that my November Secret Sister, Kim, made me and it was done!

I'm also entering this one into the open challenge over at Flutter By this week. It's been awhile since I've played along and this time of year is the perfect excuse to add angels into the fluttery mix. :)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

So nothing fun came up yesterday, in fact I ended up spending a lot of my time cleaning. Have you ever bought something only to have it go missing before you could even use it? That's what sent me into my cleaning spree... I was going to make a card with a new little paper pad that I got recently but when I went to look for it, it was nowhere to be found. Sure, I could have changed my plan and gone with different papers but the missing paper pad kept bothering me so I just kept searching. Now I can report that while my room is clean the whereabouts of that paper are still unknown and not a card did I make.

Luckily, I still had this card from the SOGNouveau Girls release that hadn't been posted here on my blog yet. Something about this gorgeous miss Grow brought to mind a nouveau style Snow White... it's probably that apple of hers. So naturally I had to give her some shiny black hair and fair skin. I think that all three of the Nouveau Girls are fabulous but if I had to pick a favorite, Grow would be the one. Something about her attitude speaks to me. :)

Alrighty folks, I hope your Sunday is a pleasant one. Anyone decorating for Christmas yet? I'm thinking that I might as well since the place is currently so clean, LOL!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Any big plans for this weekend? Nothing much exciting on my agenda I'm afraid. But that's ok, maybe something fun will come up when I least expect it. :)

So my card today is actually a result of a video request that I got a while ago that involved coloring up Wild Sprout DeeDee from TGF. And since I've always thought that her little boots would work great with a winter transformation this was the perfect time to color her up. The videos can be found here and here or over on the Color Me Copic blog if you're interested on seeing how she came together. I did a bit of easy altering by adding Wild Sprout Camille's coat over top DeeDee's original body. Boy, I've paired that coat up with several other Sprouts over the years... it's just so perfect for making a non-Christmas image work on a Christmas/winter card. And I put a bunch more of my Christmas scraps to use on this one. Which is fantastic considering I kinda couldn't resist a couple deals that I found for new Christmas papers online this Black Friday. ;)

Friday, November 25, 2011

Hello, hello!So did everybody have a great day yesterday? I sure did... though I'm still feeling just about as stuffed as that turkey on the table was! OMGosh, I seriously need to go get on the tread climber and spend about 5 hours on it, LOL! :)So a new challenge went up over on the Tickled Pink challenge blog yesterday and this week we want to see you create a sentiment in your own handwriting.

No lie, I was a bit nervous about this one. I mean, my handwriting is hit or miss and I didn't want to get a card 99% finished only to ruin it with a mistake or something. So my first trick was to choose a young, child-like, looking stamp. In this case, the super cute Lil Winter Evie digi. This allowed me to do a simple kid style type of printing that would be hard to mess up. And for an extra "no-mess-up-guarantee" I wrote on a separate piece of cardstock, instead of directly on my card base, and drew a word bubble around it all to make it easy to cut out.

So don't let this one scare you! Just go check out all the amazing inspiration from the rest of the design team girls and play along with us this week. There is a free digi of your choice up for grabs and the winner is now selected by random generator!Don't forget that your card must feature a Tickled Pink stamp in order to qualify for the prize... these include: Lil Lolitas and Lads, Pinkettes, Pink Pets and Cherries. All of which can be found in the Tickled Pink store.Good luck everybody!Supply list:cardstock- Bazzill and Copic X-Press Itpaper- Paper Fever (trees)digi stamp- Tickled Pink (Lil Little Winter Evie)ink- Colorbox ice blueribbonbuttonMaya Road star stick pinsEK Success border punchMartha Stewart Crystal Fine glitterSharpie white markerCopic black multiliner 0.1Copic markers:skin- E000, E00, E11, R00, R20eyes- YG95, YG97, YG99hair- C5, C7, C9, 100clothes- B00, B12, B14, RV63, RV55, R08, E19, YG03, YG17, E35, B000, YR04

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I hope all is well for everyone as we hit that mid-week mark. And for those of us getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow I hope you have a wonderful day full of love, laughter and lots of delicious food, LOL! :)

I'm actually going to be taking a day off from the ol' blog tomorrow, as I will be busy with the fam. So I hope you don't mind me posting a final Thanksgiving card for 2011 one day early.I recently colored up Cheeky Cherry Pie for a Copic video that you can find here and here or on Color Me Copic, and I thought that she would be perfect for a sweet Thanksgiving Day card. Mostly because I think that a slice of pecan pie is the best part of the entire feast but also because these new Gathering papers from Authentique look like they were just made to go with this vintage looking little gal. Plus the color combo is one of my all time faves so that didn't hurt either. ;)

When it came time to put the card base together, I checked out the current challenges running over at the Farm Fresh blog and decided to play along with the Friday Spyday #7. I veered slightly from the original layout design but I was really inspired by the heart theme going on so of course I had to add some warm and fuzzy hearts of my own. I think they tie back nicely to the sentiment I chose and are reminiscent of the love and gratitude we should all have this time of year.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Thank you all so much for all of the wonderful birthday wishes yesterday, they were all so much fun to read and put a huge smile on my face! I had a great day, with a nice dinner out and my sis, the baker extraordinaire, made a delicious cake for all to enjoy. Pretty much a perfect birthday in my opinion. :)

I have a quick card for this week's review preview over at ATS and it features the snow miss, Adorn D. Yard. I went with a much cooler color palette for her this time around and even swapped out the usual cranberries on her garland for some blue juniper berries. They may not be as tasty but they do look pretty. ;)And I'm still doing great with my plan to use up Christmas scraps... every paper on this card came from my pile of bits and pieces. Yeah! I've gotta say that it is a pretty satisfying feeling when I can mix together papers from different companies and lines and have them work this well. It doesn't always happen, LOL!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Sure it's a Monday. And sure, I've got work to go to today but it's also my birthday so I plan on having some fun too. I'm not exactly sure what that will be yet, I guess part of it depends on how much snow we get today. Hopefully the white stuff will hold off so I can go out and enjoy a bit of a celebration! ;)

So Saturday was a very good mail day for me... I received a couple of orders that I had placed that had some wonderful new Christmas goodies I've been anxious to get my hands on. One of those was the Holiday Style 8x8 pad from October Afternoon... LOVE it! I couldn't resist diving in and putting it to use on a card right away. Luckily I also got this new Kraftin' Kimmie cutie, Shoppin' Sarah, who I thought would make for a fun Christmas shopping kind of card. I did some super simple altering by drawing in lines across her calves to turn her high heels into stylin' winter boots. And I also managed to stick with my 'use up scraps' resolution too as the candy cane stripe and aqua grid down at the bottom of the card actually were scraps from the first October Afternoon Christmas line, Good Cheer. All in all this was a happy, happy, joy, joy kind of card to make. :)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

I finally watched the Pirates 4 movie last night and I gotta say that it was worth the wait... loved everything about it! The only bad thing is that now I'm really hoping there will be a 5th one because it seems like a lot of loose ends where still left hanging. There's just something about Captain Jack Sparrow that I find oddly appealing... must be the whole 'bad boy' thing. ;)

Anywho, I finally got around to making a card with the adorable Lili of the Valley Shine a Light stamp that I colored up for my Candle Glow video last month. I recently went through my scrap bags (which I normally sort by color) and pulled all of the Christmas paper scraps that I came across and put them in their own pile. This way I hope to use more of them up a lot faster than I have been. That's not to say I can't use new goodies as well, 'cause I sure haven't been able to resist picking up some of this year's fab paper releases, but I'm going to try and mix the old with the new. Which is exactly what I've done here... most of the papers are from an older Making Memories line but I added in the sheet with the sentiment printed on it from the My Mind's Eye Lost & Found 6x6 pad. I think it all works together and it was nice to see the paper pile get that much smaller. :)

Alrighty, time for me to make a cup of cocoa and go about enjoying this day off. No big plans, but I do need to try and get a few things done before this upcoming week of birthday revelry and Thanksgiving get-togethers.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

I hope your weekend is off to a great start. All is well here, though I should be getting ready for work today. Once we get snow on the roads it takes a little longer to get into town... I look at it as more time to enjoy my Christmas tunes while driving. ;)

So this card was part of the Review Preview on the ATS blog earlier this week and features Chill E. Pinebough from the November SN release. This time around I drew a little forest scene in the distance behind him with a few quick squiggles of the marker. I like how it gives Chill E. a home to live in with his birdie pal. It's the little things that make me smile I tell ya. :)

Friday, November 18, 2011

Well, thankfully we didn't add any new snow yesterday, though the forecast is saying we will get more today and tomorrow. It is too early to start feeling snowed in I tell ya! And today I am back at work so I actually have to brave driving in the white stuff... grumble, grumble, grumble. Guess I'll just have to put my big girl panties on (thermal long johns are probably more appropriate) and deal. LOL ;)

So the new challenge over at Some Odd Girl is up and this time we have a recipe that, while you might not think it at first, gives you a lot of room to be as creative as you please. Just use:

All of these elements must be present to be eligible for the prize. Of course an image and sentiment aren’t included or the equation might have looked ridiculously long but we want to see those too. You can have more than the above but not less than.

For my card, I wanted to change things up a bit so I chose to use the adorable reindeer from the Deck the Halls Tobie clear set as the main focal image. It's rare that I color up an animal rather than a person but this little guy was beggin' to become Rudolph and I just had to do it. It looks like he is taking a quick break from leading Santa's sleigh to nibble on some carrots that the good girls and boys left out for him. :)

Ok, now it's you're turn and you've got until November 29th to enter a card for a chance at winning a fab prize and while you don't have to use a SOG image to qualify, you do get an extra name in the hat come drawing time if you do.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I think that Fairy Nadine jinxed me yesterday because we got our first snow of the season. Yep, it snowed most of the day and now we have a few inches on the ground!

Ok, enough of my whining... welcome back to the fourth and final day of the mini digi only release sneak peeks over at Tickled Pink Stamps! It is a fun variety of Lolitas, Lil Little and Fairy all ready for your Christmas and winter cards. For now these will be available in digital formonly and because she has been getting SO many requests from all of you TP fans, Kellie has the release available right now in the Tickled Pink Store!

I can't tell you how excited I am to have a brand new Sookie to share with you today! We haven't seen her since the Decades release oh-so long ago and I've always thought that we needed more Sookie love at Tickled Pink. So she's finally back and skating her way right into the holiday season. She is so pretty and graceful looking don'tcha think?As always it wouldn't be a Tickled Pink Stamps preview without a prize, so head on over to the Tickled Pink blog and leave a comment on today's post for a chance at winning your very own Ice Skating Sookiedigi stamp! And while you are there be sure to check out the fun and fantastic cards that my fellow Pink Ladies have created too. :)Supply list:cardstock- Bazzill, Glittered, and Copic X-Press Itpaper- My Mind's Eye (snowmen), KI Memories (stripe), We R Memory Keepers (snowflakes)digital stamp- Tickled Pink (Lil Lolita Skating Sookie)stamp- Papertrey Ink (sentiment)ink- Memento tuxedo black and Colorbox chestnut roanbradsMartha Stewart snowflake border punchSharpie white markerCopic Spica glitter penCopic markers:skin- E000, E00, E11, R00, R20, R14hair- E50, E51, E53, 0eyes- E27, E47, E49clothes- B000, B00, BG53, E81, 0, R05, R08, E19, C3, C5

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Welcome back to day three of the mini digi only release sneak peeks over at Tickled Pink Stamps! It is a fun variety of Lolitas, Lil Little and Fairy all ready for your Christmas and winter cards. For now these will be available in digital formonly and you will be able to find them in the Tickled Pink Store on November 18th (17th for those of us in the States).

My card today features Fairy Nadine. This frosty beauty is the second fairy to join the Tickled Pink range of stamps and she is bringing snow and freezing temps along with her. Doesn't she look like she could be Jack Frost's girlfriend? I gave her some snow covered pine boughs to rest on while she waits for her light o'love to finish freezing over the ponds and lakes. ;)

As always it wouldn't be a Tickled Pink Stamps preview without a prize, so head on over to the Tickled Pink blog and leave a comment on today's post for a chance at winning your very own Fairy Nadine digi stamp! And while you are there be sure to check out the gorgeous cards that my fellow Pink Ladies have created too.

Monday, November 14, 2011

We're continuing the sneaks of the mini digi only release over at Tickled Pink Stamps today! It is a fun variety of Lolitas, Lil Little and Fairy all ready for Christmas and winter cards. For now these will be available in digital formonly and you will be able to find them in the Tickled Pink Store on November 18th (17th for those of us in the States).

My card today features the new Lil Lolita Shopping Ivy. I've been partial to Ivy ever since the very first release and she's just as gorgeous now as she's ever been. I love how stylish she is as she goes about her holiday shopping... and from the look of things she has already found a few perfect gifts. I wonder who the lucky recipient will be? :)

As always it wouldn't be a Tickled Pink Stamps preview without a prize, so head on over to the Tickled Pink blog and leave a comment on today's post for a chance at winning your very own Lil Lolita Shopping Ivy digi stamp! And while you are there be sure to check out the fabulous cards that my fellow Pink Ladies have created too.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

We're sneaking in a mini digi only release over at Tickled Pink Stamps and previews of the four new images start today! It is a fun variety of Lolitas, Lil Little and Fairy all ready for Christmas and winter cards. For now these will be available in digital formonly and you will be able to find them in the Tickled Pink Store on November 18th (17th for those of us in the States).

My card today features the new Lil Little Evie and as soon as I saw her I thought she looked like a sweet little elf up at the North Pole. So it was a no-brainer pairing her up with the crazy elves from the Doodlebug Santa's Workshop papers. And once I had them on there, the card really didn't need much else. I think it looks like they are celebrating a job well done just after Santa has taken off in his sleigh for the big ride. ;)

Last night I left straight from work and drove the 40 minutes to 'the big city' with some pals to take advantage of a moonlight madness sale at the crafty store there. It was crazy and fun and I got some cool goodies but man, does it feel like I've been going, going, going without a break these past few days! Today I get to stay home but there is plenty to try and get done here too so I doubt it will be very relaxing. Then the whole cycle starts all over again... oy! But I'm not really complaining, I tend to do my best work under pressure. ;)

So quickly, quickly, I finally got the altered Punk Kaylee onto a card here recently for a special internet friend's birthday... happy birthday Terry! I had started this little gal back in August for a paper piecing video and she has been waiting patiently on my desk along with all the papers that I had pulled to go with her until a couple weeks ago. Then she caught my eye when I was wanting to make a b-day card and I thought, "Why not?". She looks like a fun party girl to me... what do you think?

Saturday, November 12, 2011

I'm jumping in real quick this morning with the last card in the little Thanksgiving themed card set that I made using the Special November release from Some Odd Girl.This one features the ever adorable Pilgrim Tobie with his cornucopia full of harvest delights. Once again I paired him up with more of that new We R Autumn Splendor 6x6 pad and kept it all very CAS. Gosh, I can't believe how close we are to Thanksgiving already... just a couple weeks away now. Mmmm... my mouth is already watering for some pecan pie, LOL! I'm still hopeful that the snow will hold off until after Thanksgiving at least but with the way today and yesterday looked I'm not so sure that will happen.In any case, as soon as the temperature drops to below freezing I say it is fair game to start cranking out the Christmas tunes. So far I've been enjoying the Michael Buble Christmas and the A Very She & Him Christmas (If you love ZooeyDeschanel and/or New Girl this one is a must have). Next, I just have to wait a few more days to download this year's new Glee Christmas songs... wootwoot! ;)

Hmmm... somehow I managed to skip from Thanksgiving right to Christmas all in one post. LOL! Oh well, it's all one big warm and fuzzy time of year if you ask me. :)

Friday, November 11, 2011

There's just something about Fridays isn't there? Doesn't matter that I'm working both today and tomorrow, it still feels good to get to the end of another week. Maybe part of it is that I'm finally feeling myself again after that awful cold. Getting sick really sidelined me and I wasn't able to get a bunch of stuff done that I wanted to this past week. So now I have Sunday to look forward to playing a little catch up on. :)Today I've got another card to share from the Thanksgiving themed Special November release over at Some Odd Girl. This one features the sweetest little indian maid to attend that first Thanksgiving feast... Indian Tia! When I sat down to make my cards for this mini release I chose to work with a single paper pad for all three because I wanted them to all coordinate with each other, kind of like a little card set. I went with the new We R Autumn Splendor 6x6 pad and as soon as I came across this cool tree trunk print I new I had to pair it up with Tia. They remind me of paper birch trees, which I'm rather fond of because I can still remember climbing up into the giant paper birch in the yard as a kid and tapping on the knots aka 'doors' looking for fairies... but I digress. Because I didn't want to lose the look of Tia standing amongst the trees, I kept the design very CAS with minimal embellishing. This is why I love pretty papers folks! ;)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

It's Thursday and that means we have a new challenge over on the Tickled Pink challenge blog! This week we want to see you create a vintage inspired card or creation. :)

Being in a decidedly Christmas kind of mind frame with my cards right now, it was a no brainer to pull out one of this year's Lil Victorian Christmas Lolitas for my card. Right away Lylah seemed to lend a very vintage look to it and when it came time to pair her up with some papers, Graphic 45 was at the top of my list for this challenge. In all my paper stash, I don't think I have anything more vintage looking than these Christmas Emporium papers... it's just not a style that I'm big time into. But boy, was I glad to have it for this! ;)I love how the little decorative panel makes it look like Lylah is part of a Christmas street scene, down town in front of the department store where all the season's toys and gifts are on display. With those bells she may just be collecting money for those less fortunate... awww, what a sweetie she is. :)

Alrighty, so go check out all the amazing inspiration from the design team girls and play along with us this week. There is a free digi of your choice up for grabs and the winner is now selected by random generator! Don't forget that your card must feature a Tickled Pink stamp in order to qualify for the prize... these include: Lil Lolitas and Lads, Pinkettes, Pink Pets and Cherries. All of which can be found in the Tickled Pink store.Good luck everybody!Supply list:cardstock- Bazzill and Copic X-Press Itpaper- Graphic 45 (Christmas Emporium)stamps- Tickled Pink (Lil Victorian Christmas Lylah), Studio G (sentiment)ink- Memento tuxedo black and Colorbox chestnut roanMaking Memories felt poinsettiabuttonsEK Success gold penSharpie white markerCopic markers:skin- E000, E00, E11, R00, R20eyes- B24, B26, B28, B39hair- E08, E19, E18clothes- YG17, YG67, G29, R24, R29, E19, E35, E57, E59, E81, W1, 0, Y21, Y26, Y28, Y13, C5, C7, C9